Is It Legal To Remove the DRM from iTunes Purchased Movies and Songs for Playing on A non-Apple Device?

As we all know, the songs or movies purchased from iTunes store are protected by the DRM (digital rights management), which is created by Apple Inc.. The files with DRM can not be played on non-apple devices like an android phone, or a tab. But people have different own usage for the songs or movies they purchased, then is it legal to remove the DRM?

Well, this following information may make great sense: "a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. The term "fair use" originated in the United States. A similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright."

So, clear? It's legal! You can remove the DRM and convert the songs for your own usage, not for sharing!

Well, if so, will Noteburner be legal to convert the iTunes songs and movies?

And accorfing to the method Noteburner works, yes, it's legal. Noteburner audio converter takes a virtual cd burning method to convert the itunes songs, and the Noteburner M4V video converter takes a record method to convert the drm m4v movies, so it's also legal.

Don't worry about the usage of the Noteburner drm converter, but please remember do not share the files converted with Noteburner, or it's illegal!

More Information You may be interested...

On February 6, 2007, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., published an open letter entitled Thoughts on Music on the Apple website calling on the "big four" music companies to sell their music without DRM. According to Jobs, Apple does not want to use DRM but is forced by the four major musical labels with whom Apple negotiates contracts for iTunes. Jobs's main points were:

• DRM has never been and will never be perfect. Hackers will always find a method to break DRM.
• DRM restrictions only hurt people using music legally. Illegal users aren't affected by DRM.
• The restrictions of DRM encourage users to obtain unrestricted music, which is usually only possible via illegal methods.
• The vast majority of music is sold without DRM via CDs, which have proven commercially successful.

Jobs' letter was met with some praise but many others criticized Apple's hypocritical approach to DRM. While openly criticizing DRM, Apple has been actively threatening or suing anybody trying to open their own DRM or make it interoperable. Critics claim that this is not because Apple is afraid of illegal copies but because it gives them an advantage in their market position as a leader in both electronic music sales (iTunes) and in music players (iPod), reinforcing each other due to the FairPlay DRM.

A question let's discuss: Do you think if Apple will drop the DRM and when? Just leave a comment below.